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A helmet may break your neck - a lot depends on how you hit the ground in the crash. In very many wrecks, a helmet was the life-saver. I'll take my chances.

Spent 11 years as an ER tech at Memorial Medical Center (WI). Learned from the orthopedic surgeons in the ER that the amount of blunt force needed to force the cervical spine of a helmeted rider far enough out of alignment to fracture it would easily have killed you anyways if not wearing any cranial protection. Helmets don't break necks.

My concern in starting this thread is that people who should know better are perpetuating this falsehood:

"There has been a lot of controversy about the effectiveness of helmets"

I had hoped that the author of this statement would defend it publicly. With the zealot-like attention to ATGATT among BMW riders, it seems very curious that the foremost safety device would be so described.

I believe anyone with ANY exposure to MC training KNOWS that full face or flip-up helmets provide more protection to your brain (and face) than lesser helmets or no helmet. BUT...

A lot of riding is about "image" - and I think that is just as true of BMW riders as all the other groups. Our "image" is a good helmet and full riding gear. Show up at one of local club "breakfast rides" wearing a T-shirt, shorts and a beanie and, probably, nobody would say a thing. But you would be a minority of one. Not comfortable. I can see Harley, Goldwing, and sports bike riders dressing as they do for exactly the same reason - you want to be part of the group. We're very lucky that our "image" fits with gear that enhances both our safety AND COMFORT. (No, I don't believe we are on average any smarter or less sheep-like than the riders whose garb we scorn.)

"I don't wear a helmet because I don't want to end up some vegetable in the hospital"

I suspect that there are quite a few people who ended up as a "vegetable in a hospital" becausethey didn't wear a good helmet. No broken bones, minor scrapes, but severe brain damage after a low speed crash. A better motto for these folks would be "I don't wear a helmet because I don't want my brain alive and my body completely ruined after a severe crash at a high speed."

I suspect that there are quite a few people who ended up as a "vegetable in a hospital" becausethey didn't wear a good helmet. No broken bones, minor scrapes, but severe brain damage after a low speed crash. A better motto for these folks would be "I don't wear a helmet because I don't want my brain alive and my body completely ruined after a severe crash at a high speed."

To the extent controversy exist it is not about the safety of using or not using a helmet. Rather it is what I often call the SUV effect. In the cage world the assumption is a SUV makes you impervious to injury when instead it just shifts the parameters of when and how severe injuries might be. In the helmet area the current questions center around what goes on inside the skull during a high speed deceleration.

The neck injury legend goes back to the early days of full face helmets on track before they were street legal. I have never been able to track down the source story but it is a racing story goes along the lines that while the helmet saved the racer the first responder caused a neck injury while removing the helmet in the field. This apparent urban legend led to all sorts of misinformation that continues to this day. Improvements in design and first responder training make it much more important that they remove a helmet for access to your airway increase of other issues than any urban legend fears warrant.

The helmet controversy is also fueled by a common secondary injury wearers may experience in a crash; a broken collarbone. The bottom edge of the helmet strikes the colar bone and the impact results in a fracture or break. Several versions of gear have been designed as part or research supported by BMW, KTM and others. Some have made it to market but aren't real popular for street use.

On going research into head trauma suffered by football players and other athletes brings helmet injuries into the news; creating new myths and urban legends in the process. In early studies in this field some research seemed to indicate some sports helmets possibly increased the possibility of head injuries due to their design. What is being missed in the casual discussions of that link sport helmet sound bites to motorcycle helmets:

- Frequency of hits. Professional athletes sighted in stories may have experienced helmet strikes in the several thousands of times range and these repeated head blows may be what the atheletes are experiencing in latter years.
- What the injuries in the early helmets were caused by. The difference in design of chin straps, interior webbing failures are extremely different than motorcycle helmet design. Jack Nicholson may have worn a football helmet in Easy Rider but they never passed DOT muster.

What motorcycle helmet manufacturers and standards writers seem to be learning from the athletic studies is how to better design helmet interiors to help the brain deal with rapid deceleration during impact.

Wearing a helmet does not make us impervious to brain injuries but for my money significantly increases the odds that not wearing one is not an option.

I can see how a helmet can cause a broken collarbone, or improper helmet removal can aggravate a neck injury, or perhaps the weight of the helmet might increase a whiplash injury. But I have trouble imagining a likely scenario where these things happen without the helmet having already protected the rider from a greater injury.

So I do not ride without a helmet, nor do I ride with others who are not wearing a helmet. I do not argue about it. Those who disagree with me fall into the category of self-correcting problems.

Well, yes, perhaps in this forum. Still, one thing might be said. While a helmet will save your life under all conditions....crushing chest injuries for one...it very likely save your personality under any number of less-than-fatal encounters. I just tell the helmet skeptics that I've grown attached
to the personality I have and don't want to break in a new one at this point in my life. Then I relate the accident of a women I know who was
thrown from the back of her boyfriend's bike. No observable physical injuries...but she was ten years old mentally from that time on...

Yes, but it's an inane concept perpetuated by our brethren in the motorcycle community. No outside entity or government agency, just our brethren.

Accordingly, when discussing within the "community" one has to be "PC" and respect the idea that helmets may not work...........

Actually helmets always work - up to the limitations of their design and the forces that are acting upon them.

Helmets were never designed to make you invincible when it comes to head trauma. Many who argue against their 'effectiveness' like to stumble down that convoluted path of rationalization.

As MSF instructors, we struggle to find ways to communicate the effectiveness of helmets to novice riders, usually employing 'anecdotal war stories,' cliched commentary or creative examples.

If a particular student is adamant about not wearing one once he/she leaves my class, I suggest they lower their head and run into the classroom's brick wall as fast as they can (for humans, a 7-10 mph collision) to demonstrate the resiliency of the human cranium. So far, no takers.